Actually, I don't think anybody would waste their time. Reading Windows' source code sounds more like watching an episode of 3 Stooges or something like that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yes! Dvorak layout is a COMMUNIST conspiracy to replace us from the God-given QWERTY layout, which is what the ancient biblical scribes used to record the Word to paper in the first place.
Once they convert us over to Dvorak, then there's nothing to stop them from changing over to Metric, free software, the French language, and Godless communism!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
then with the exception of King of the Hill, I now have my Sunday nights back.
Don't get me wrong, I loved X-Files, but all good things must come to an end. They were running out of decent stories anyway.
It will be sad to watch Fox try to butcher and bastardize something to try to capitalize as much as they can from the carcass. Let's hope the maggots make quick work of it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Shit yeah, wallpaper in Bay-Area apartment buildings. Unless you are CEO, you can't afford rent - unless, of course, you submit to the wallpaper in your house.
The future's so bright, I gotta wear a guillotine.
But then again, linking them together for a much larger screen - eh? are we talking BEOWULF clusters here? On/.?
I tell ya, all I want is a good-sized decent flat display I can afford. Is it too much to ask?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, what I meant to say was, if you aren't Microsoft, you haven't entered the market in any meaningful way, because eventually, you're gonna get squished.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
In Naperville Illinois, exists the one and only Red Roof Inn in the entire world without a Red Roof. This is because it sits alongside the dreaded constipated Route 59, and the town elders decided that a Red Roof was too distracting to drivers, and slowed traffic down too much.
If only they were of the same mind before they gave carte blanc to all the real-estate developers who turned every last square inch of farmland out there into subdivisions. Yuk.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, I think technically, with the baby's head inside the mother still, the baby has not breathed a breath of air, which is a religious interpretation of the start of life. Not a popular one, but one that's been the legal benchmark, I think, in Britain.
Again, the slippery slope. When does life start? At what point does this act (terminating the "baby making process") constitute murder? Could be some time before we're really smart enough to answer that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Just because the baby happens to be located OUTSIDE of the mother's womb, doesn't mean that it can "survive" (Darwin's definition) on it's own. Arguably, that doesn't become possible until probably year 2 or 3, and even then, it's pretty farfetched.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
SHIT, kill me now so I don't have to suffer the agony of reading another Jon Katz article.
Suffering is relative. And then, of course, there's the problem of where you draw the line - but then again, technically that could apply to human fetal research, tissue engineering, or even bacteria, if you extend your silliness far enough.
I guess it all boils down to, no matter how smart we (humanity) think we are, we can't come up with a good answer to that question.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
That's the whole point, why breaking up MS will do no good. It's not the OS monopoly that gives MS such power. It's the DESKTOP monopoly, the PLATFORM monopoly.
And it's the consumers who are to blame, every idiot person who thought: "if I buy Microsoft, it weakens all these other players, and then I won't have to worry about learing the other computer systems, because they'll all just go away" - and that works all the way up to the CIO mentality: "single platform is the cheapest way to go, and the most robust single platform is Microsoft"
This is the attitude that Open Source defeats, because you have support for Linux idealists, *BSD idealists, with a nod to the various commercial Unix flavors and all it's derivatives. A very healthy heterogeneous atmosphere is fostered by this stuff - and the only thing that has to do with Microsoft is the strong hatred for what they stand for - a 1-platform world.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Just because you can afford a few scruffy programmers, PCs, and Microsoft Developer Net subscriptions does NOT mean you have entered the software market in any meaningful way.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I don't think that the oil companies ARE very competitive. That's why we all get hit at the pump every time there's a THREAT of a shortage - it's not upward pressure on the price, it's an excuse to raise prices.
All the same, as I have stated in other posts, I don't think there is a good way to break up MS that would effectively solve the problems. Nor would a fine be good for consumers, because they'll just pass the cost on to us. Nor would "forced opening and documentation" of the OS source code and every API (because there's no way to insure accuracy and quality).
So again, I say, Lock em up! Every last one of the nasty bastards. Even the contractors.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Ah, but if we take a truly academic definition of what is an OS, and what is an Application, the OS, really does lose all of it's value. Picture all the low-level apps bundled with Windows being shifted away towards the Office Corp. (notepad, calculator, ftp, explorer.exe, etc). What you have left is a rather unattractive blob of code that boots your computer, but leaves it largely unusable. So Gateway would probably want to bundle some "apps" with that OS too, at least the basic stuff that would equate to what Windows 95 is today, to offer the same functionality to consumers. Where other companys could compete is, create other OSes that would supplant that layer, but what does this say for Solaris, Mac OS, BeOS, and other competitors? LOTS of apps bundled with the OS. And in the end, still total dominance for whatever company makes this "middle-layer" part of the OS or the user-level apps that give access to the low-level OS, in this case, the Applications division of Microsoft, Office Corp.
So I basically think this split up think is bunk, and we need JAIL TIME.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, the great irony to all of this "backwards compatability" crap is, that PC's are the most NON backwards compatible machines there are. When you look at running modern software on a 286, forget it. Older software runs fine on newer machines, true, but really, what microscopic fraction of the market has that need - and what is there that was written in 1986, that hasn't been done 10 times better since then? (in terms of Windows software).
As far as Linux use goes, and I think that's pretty important to a lot of people on this list, I do think that effort should be made to make sure new software will run on 486's, but going back further would probably be a waste of time, since a 486 PC can be had virtually free these days anyway. Heck, you can get a decent low-end pentium for next to nothing.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
well, there will be many, many millions of copies. Is it not possible that we could find one copy intact? Or how about - with a technology a few decades away, reconstruct it from fragments from different copies?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
compared to many of the ways I could die, an abbatoir sounds pretty nice. (non kosher, done correctly - kosher requires a slit throat, yuk, and in regular slaughterhouses, less panic the animals are in produces higher quality meat, something about hormones released when the animal is in abject terror).
I'd rather suffer a quick, semi painful electrical jolt, then loss of consciousness, than: Slowly waste away over a period of months from cancer, after several unsuccessful years of chemo, radiation, and massive surgery. (as opposed to the Kervorkian alternative) Bleed to death with my head sticking out of a shattered windshield, watching my insides ooze all over the dashboard, and onlookers in the other lanes creep by at ten miles an hour to get a peek. (because I couldn't afford a nice new Lexus with crumple-zones, antilock brakes, and airbags) Hang by my entrails from a mountainside tree where my 737 crashed, and slowly roast as the spilled fuel burns below. (Because the govt. decided to not crack down on airline safety due to lobbying efforts of airplane manufacturers) Suffer multiple gunshot wounds in my back from two LAPD police officers who didn't like the color of my skin. Starve to death over a period of months because my government felt I should be a farmer instead of a grocer - even though there was no unfarmed land left. Be the last in my village to be hacked to peices by machette due to tribal warfare.
As you can see - when you try to define the word "humane", if you really examine things, it's quite ironic.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
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Actually, I don't think anybody would waste their time. Reading Windows' source code sounds more like watching an episode of 3 Stooges or something like that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yes! Dvorak layout is a COMMUNIST conspiracy to replace us from the God-given QWERTY layout, which is what the ancient biblical scribes used to record the Word to paper in the first place.
Once they convert us over to Dvorak, then there's nothing to stop them from changing over to Metric, free software, the French language, and Godless communism!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
then with the exception of King of the Hill, I now have my Sunday nights back.
Don't get me wrong, I loved X-Files, but all good things must come to an end. They were running out of decent stories anyway.
It will be sad to watch Fox try to butcher and bastardize something to try to capitalize as much as they can from the carcass. Let's hope the maggots make quick work of it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Shit yeah, wallpaper in Bay-Area apartment buildings. Unless you are CEO, you can't afford rent - unless, of course, you submit to the wallpaper in your house.
/.?
The future's so bright, I gotta wear a guillotine.
But then again, linking them together for a much larger screen - eh? are we talking BEOWULF clusters here? On
I tell ya, all I want is a good-sized decent flat display I can afford. Is it too much to ask?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, what I meant to say was, if you aren't Microsoft, you haven't entered the market in any meaningful way, because eventually, you're gonna get squished.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
That kind of thinking can be taken to an extreme:
In Naperville Illinois, exists the one and only Red Roof Inn in the entire world without a Red Roof. This is because it sits alongside the dreaded constipated Route 59, and the town elders decided that a Red Roof was too distracting to drivers, and slowed traffic down too much.
If only they were of the same mind before they gave carte blanc to all the real-estate developers who turned every last square inch of farmland out there into subdivisions. Yuk.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
It is not the idea which is dangerous. It's the acceptance of the idea, and the action upon that idea.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, I think technically, with the baby's head inside the mother still, the baby has not breathed a breath of air, which is a religious interpretation of the start of life. Not a popular one, but one that's been the legal benchmark, I think, in Britain.
Again, the slippery slope. When does life start? At what point does this act (terminating the "baby making process") constitute murder?
Could be some time before we're really smart enough to answer that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Just because the baby happens to be located OUTSIDE of the mother's womb, doesn't mean that it can "survive" (Darwin's definition) on it's own. Arguably, that doesn't become possible until probably year 2 or 3, and even then, it's pretty farfetched.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
SHIT, kill me now so I don't have to suffer the agony of reading another Jon Katz article.
Suffering is relative.
And then, of course, there's the problem of where you draw the line - but then again, technically that could apply to human fetal research, tissue engineering, or even bacteria, if you extend your silliness far enough.
I guess it all boils down to, no matter how smart we (humanity) think we are, we can't come up with a good answer to that question.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I think you've ALMOST got it there.
That's the whole point, why breaking up MS will do no good. It's not the OS monopoly that gives MS such power. It's the DESKTOP monopoly, the PLATFORM monopoly.
And it's the consumers who are to blame, every idiot person who thought: "if I buy Microsoft, it weakens all these other players, and then I won't have to worry about learing the other computer systems, because they'll all just go away" - and that works all the way up to the CIO mentality: "single platform is the cheapest way to go, and the most robust single platform is Microsoft"
This is the attitude that Open Source defeats, because you have support for Linux idealists, *BSD idealists, with a nod to the various commercial Unix flavors and all it's derivatives. A very healthy heterogeneous atmosphere is fostered by this stuff - and the only thing that has to do with Microsoft is the strong hatred for what they stand for - a 1-platform world.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Just because you can afford a few scruffy programmers, PCs, and Microsoft Developer Net subscriptions does NOT mean you have entered the software market in any meaningful way.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
I don't think that the oil companies ARE very competitive. That's why we all get hit at the pump every time there's a THREAT of a shortage - it's not upward pressure on the price, it's an excuse to raise prices.
All the same, as I have stated in other posts, I don't think there is a good way to break up MS that would effectively solve the problems.
Nor would a fine be good for consumers, because they'll just pass the cost on to us.
Nor would "forced opening and documentation" of the OS source code and every API (because there's no way to insure accuracy and quality).
So again, I say, Lock em up! Every last one of the nasty bastards. Even the contractors.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Ah, but if we take a truly academic definition of what is an OS, and what is an Application, the OS, really does lose all of it's value. Picture all the low-level apps bundled with Windows being shifted away towards the Office Corp. (notepad, calculator, ftp, explorer.exe, etc). What you have left is a rather unattractive blob of code that boots your computer, but leaves it largely unusable. So Gateway would probably want to bundle some "apps" with that OS too, at least the basic stuff that would equate to what Windows 95 is today, to offer the same functionality to consumers. Where other companys could compete is, create other OSes that would supplant that layer, but what does this say for Solaris, Mac OS, BeOS, and other competitors? LOTS of apps bundled with the OS. And in the end, still total dominance for whatever company makes this "middle-layer" part of the OS or the user-level apps that give access to the low-level OS, in this case, the Applications division of Microsoft, Office Corp.
So I basically think this split up think is bunk, and we need JAIL TIME.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Heh, yeah, and make them all relocate from Redmond to San Jose!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Yes, and another important point, which programs belong to the OS division and which to the Apps division?
MS Office - ? simple, Apps.
IE - ? simple, Apps (unless you're Bill Gates)
Notepad - ? um, er, apps?
Explorer - ? um, well, it's an exe, right?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Jail time.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
All I can say is WTF. Ford didn't have to patent "5.0 Liter". Why the hell does Intel need to?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Wait, they're making a chip that is compatible with the archaic x86 instruction set - so what is so forward thinking about that?
Not to dis Linus and get my karma all beaten up and stuff. . .
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, the great irony to all of this "backwards compatability" crap is, that PC's are the most NON backwards compatible machines there are. When you look at running modern software on a 286, forget it. Older software runs fine on newer machines, true, but really, what microscopic fraction of the market has that need - and what is there that was written in 1986, that hasn't been done 10 times better since then? (in terms of Windows software).
As far as Linux use goes, and I think that's pretty important to a lot of people on this list, I do think that effort should be made to make sure new software will run on 486's, but going back further would probably be a waste of time, since a 486 PC can be had virtually free these days anyway. Heck, you can get a decent low-end pentium for next to nothing.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Wool from sheep make nice sweaters.
Wool from woolly mammoth - probably a lot scratchier.
- - the other thing they have to worry about is Mitochondrial DNA - will be from the mother, not from the DNA source animal.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Wool from sheep make nice sweaters.
Wool from woolly mammoth - probably a lot scratchier.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
well, there will be many, many millions of copies. Is it not possible that we could find one copy intact? Or how about - with a technology a few decades away, reconstruct it from fragments from different copies?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
compared to many of the ways I could die, an abbatoir sounds pretty nice. (non kosher, done correctly - kosher requires a slit throat, yuk, and in regular slaughterhouses, less panic the animals are in produces higher quality meat, something about hormones released when the animal is in abject terror).
I'd rather suffer a quick, semi painful electrical jolt, then loss of consciousness, than:
Slowly waste away over a period of months from cancer, after several unsuccessful years of chemo, radiation, and massive surgery. (as opposed to the Kervorkian alternative)
Bleed to death with my head sticking out of a shattered windshield, watching my insides ooze all over the dashboard, and onlookers in the other lanes creep by at ten miles an hour to get a peek. (because I couldn't afford a nice new Lexus with crumple-zones, antilock brakes, and airbags)
Hang by my entrails from a mountainside tree where my 737 crashed, and slowly roast as the spilled fuel burns below. (Because the govt. decided to not crack down on airline safety due to lobbying efforts of airplane manufacturers)
Suffer multiple gunshot wounds in my back from two LAPD police officers who didn't like the color of my skin.
Starve to death over a period of months because my government felt I should be a farmer instead of a grocer - even though there was no unfarmed land left.
Be the last in my village to be hacked to peices by machette due to tribal warfare.
As you can see - when you try to define the word "humane", if you really examine things, it's quite ironic.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
Well, Intel has sure kept me entertained for the past 5 years, I'll give them that. Whooo ha ha ha ha ha!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."